Heavy rain brings miseries to farmers

• While Very heavy rain in last 2-4 days in Panipath (172 mm) , Karnal (122mm) Sonipath (120mm) Amritsar(55.5mm) and Tarantaran (40.5mm) have Damaged the standing paddy in Punja and Haryana and facing acute problem in disposal of harvested paddy
•  At several market yards in Haryana, hundreds of gunny bags filled with paddy have been lying in the open due to the strike by the 'arhtiyas'.
•  The unexpected heavy rain has not only damaged paddy but will delay cultivation of rabi crops due to waterlogging and high moisture in fields.

 

Yield to be affected:

Ø  Waterlogging in fields due to rain may lead to higher moisture content in paddy

Ø  Higher moisture content will affect grain quality, resulting in lower remuneration

Ø  India’s rice output expected to dip by 6% to 104.99 MT Stood at 111.76 MT in Kharif season of 2021-22 crop year, already 19 lakh hectares were sown less this year.

     Paddy flattened following rain and strong winds in Sangrur

 Late spell of rain stalls harvest, impacts crops:

Ø Farmers struggled to save their produce as continuous rains in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have flooded fields and soaked standing crops, leading to grain loss.

Ø Heavy unseasonal rain in northern food-bowl states has stalled harvesting and damaged crops, while raising risks of pest attacks, cultivators.

Ø Experts said a late revival of the monsoon has been a boon for eastern states where rains had been scanty and destructive in the north where harvesting has begun or is about to start.

Ø  A low pressure in the Bay of Bengal and a western disturbance, a rain-bearing system, have collided to give heavy rains at a time when the June-September monsoon normally begins to retreat. The country witnessed an erratic monsoon this year. Rains skipped many paddy growing states, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. A late revival has helped these state. Harvesting of paddy has come to a halt because combine harvesters cannot be operated in soft, wet soil. There will be considerable yield loss in paddy,” Rajinder Singh, a former agriculture officer with the Haryana government, said from Karnal. In Uttar Pradesh, heavy rains have damaged paddy and pearl millet (bajra). “Very heavy rainfall has resulted in crop losses in both central and western Uttar Pradesh,” said Sudhir Panwar, a Lucknow-based agriculture expert. Showers have inundated towns and farms in regions such as Agra, Mathura, Etawah, Kannauj and Meerut, he said.

The rains, which are likely to continue over the weekend in northern states, effectively narrow the window available to farmers to harvest and clear their fields of paddy remnants. Officials from Punjab and Haryana, in a meeting held by the Centre on Sept 21, said that they expected a lower incidence of farm fires this year, which cause an annual spell of deadly pollution and smog over Delhi. However, delayed harvesting is likely to cause a spike in the intensity of stubble burning, as farmers will have less time to clear fields for their next crop, wheat.

 

 

Future Impact on rice:

Ø  India’s rice production is expected to decline by 6 per cent to 104.99 million tonnes in the kharif season this year due to a fall in paddy acreage amidst rainfall deficit in key producing states like Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

 

Ø  Rice production stood at 111.76 million tonnes in kharif season of 2021-22 crop year, according to the first advance estimates for kharif season of 2022-23 crop year (July-June). The sowing of paddy, the main kharif crop, also declined by nearly 19 lakh hectares to 399.03 lakh hectares compared to 417.93 lakh hectares in mid-September a year ago due to lack of rains earlier. The rains will remain subdued over the plains of the northwest and central India during the next five days, the IMD said.